South Korea
South Korea, officially known as the Republic of Korea (ROK) is a nation on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. A presidential republic, it is neighbored by China to the west, Japan to the east and North Korea bordering to the North. It's capital city, Seoul, is the largest city in South Korea and the worlds second largest metropolitan city. Korea has a 5,000 year history, making it one of the oldest civilizations on Earth, it has been split since the end of the World War 2 and tensions between them are high, though South Korea continues towards a peaceful re-unification. A Democratic nation, South Korea maintains a strong alliance with the United States. In the real world, it's current leader at time of writing is Lee Myung-bak. South Korea is one of five factions in Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. While the regular South Korean Army is part of the Allied Nations forces, a separate detachment named South Korean Union (SKU) was a covert operation group funded, fostered and backed by the CIA, in the person of Special Agent Mitchell Buford. These SK soldiers take their orders from Langley, VA. The South Koreans are after the reunification of Korea, and have moved aggressively to establish a strategic foothold. Needless to say, they are not happy about China's designs on their northern neighbors. The South Koreans control technology much like the Allied Nations, and provide access to stealth fighter and bomber support (courtesy of the CIA). Agent Buford typically tasks the player with rescue/recovery missions or crippling infrastructure attacks that he does not want traced back to the South Koreans, though by the third "act" the SK and Chinese forces are engaged in open warfare. SK jobs can vary, but most pit the player against the North Koreans, the Chinese, and occasionally, the Russian Mafia. Most SKU soldiers are equipped with the same basic weaponry as their AN counterparts, such as M4A1 Carbines, grenades and AT/AA rockets. But their vehicle camouflage tends more towards a wintry white/grey/Blue pattern than the blue/green jungle/grassland color scheme of the AN machines, while their soldiers wear fatigues with entirely different color schemes (closely resembling the uniform worn by South Korean military police in the Joint Security Area of the DMZ). A few SKU Soldiers carry the MG36 Prototype Rifles, which is also used by some of the all-female commandos of the ROKA 707th Special Mission Battalion. SK snipers carry Dragunov sniper weapons, while some officers and 707th commandos carry silenced MP5 sub-machine guns. Some SKU troops have also employed RPGs and other anti-tank weapons. The SK motorized and mechanized forces feature TOW-armed variants of the Allied HMMWVs, APCs and powerful attack helicopters. However, since it is a covert unit, the SK forces lack heavy armored support. Speed and mobility are the South Korean forces' primary assets, as they do not have the heavy armor or manpower to engage in sustained combat with Chinese or North Korean forces. Collecting WMD blueprints (small blue-grey metal boxes with nuclear symbols on them) and/or destroying NK monuments (usually giant statues of General Song) will increase South Korean favor toward the player. Killing NK, Mafia, or Chinese troops in the presence of SK troops will raise favor for the player as well. It is worth noting that, while the South Korean forces are referred to as the SKU in the instruction manual, this title, or the notion that the SK operation is a covert one, is mentioned nowhere else in the game. Viewing a soldier through the binoculars brings up the acronym ROKA; Republic of Korea Army. Category:Factions Category:Real World